This week, Denver School of the Arts is performing “Urinetown” or more than 2,000 thespians from all over the United States and the world at the Educational Theater Thespian Festival, the largest in the world.

More than 50 students from DSA are performing at the festival, which is being presented by the Educational Theatre Association at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Thousands of other students from across the nation are participating with the Denver students in workshops, classes, performances and more. It’s also a time for college recruiters to see new talent.

Only 50 high schools from among the 35,000 in the country are selected to perform full-length productions of top Broadway shows. DSA’s “Urinetown,” under the direction of, Shawn Hann, was selected as one of the outstanding performances in the country last fall, after a rigorous judging process.

“Musical theater in the schools is actually benefiting due in large part to unlikely pop-culture developments,” said Freddie Gershon, chairman and CEO of Music Theater International (MTI), the world’s leading dramatic licensing agency. “Despite school budget cutbacks and eliminated programs and classes, there are more musical theater productions in elementary, middle and high schools than ever before.”

The trend seems to be due in part to the highly watched movie “High School Musical” and the hit TV show “Glee.” In addition, there reality TV shows like “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance” have encouraged young Americans to take positive risks.

Many of the schools, for the first time, have programs that build teamwork, self-esteem, cooperation and other life lessons that do not involve being good at sports, and they are putting resources toward music programs.

At Music Theatre International, administrators have designed programs for schools. In 2009, MTI licensed more than 20,000 productions for middle and high schools and another 8,000 productions for elementary schools, which is up 15 percent above last year.

The Denver production of “Urinetown” is the culmination of all the work of all the teachers and students there.

“Denver School of The Arts is an example of hard work and discipline,” said John Prignano, MTI Senior Operations Officer.

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